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I am very grateful to be given this opportunity to go on a field trip with my colleagues. It is important not only for bringing our Distillery team closer but learning more about our industry as well.
I have never been in a Food terminal and that’s where we started our trip. I felt like a kid in a chocolate store where I was able to see, smell and touch all the beautiful produce and had a chance to talk with people who grow them.

I had a chance to ask questions, had a real conversation with farmers taking pride in what they do. Which made me even more proud to use their beautiful produce in our kitchen.

Once we came into Bondi produces warehouse I was impressed how clean and organized everything is. It was a pleasure to see such a high respect for every single piece of fruit or vegetable, to see people taking pride in what they do, see all high hygiene standards being used in the warehouse to assure that we would get only the highest quality products.

My favourite part of the trip was the winery because I never had a chance to visit winery before. I was surprised how much care grape wines need, I was happy to learn about different ways of making wine, using different barrels, aging… And the fact that this winery has its own bees means a lot. The wine we got to taste was amazing and the honey itself was great. We got to see unpasteurized honey, the little factory where it gets portioned and we got to try it! You could almost taste that the bees are really happy in there.
After all I am very happy that i had a chance to go on this trip. I learned more about produces in general, the way they are grown, how long is their shelf life, I got a chance to see the real way that produces travel to reach our kitchen and I enjoyed this little journey so much.

Indre Ramanciuckaite – Distillery Events

“…I see Riga Farms kale at work in the walk in all the time. I had the chance to meet the man from my home town that produces it. ….”

Jeff Glowacki – CDP @ Pure Spirits Oyster House

“…I definitely will not only appreciate more, but respect our produce differently whenever using them in our kitchen due to this eye opening experience….” “..This trip was so informative, I can’t wait to do this again..”

Henry Ng – Line Cook @ Cluny Bistro

“..Next stop was St. David’s Hydroponics where they grow red peppers and eggplants. It was surprising to see the level of automation used in their picking and processing. They even had a self driving robot that carted product from the greenhouse to the sorting warehouse. It stole the show…”

Steve Hoang – Apprentice Chef @ Cluny Bistro

“..Last stop, Rosewood Estates, they are our wildflower honey and honeycomb supplier for the Distillery Restaurants. The flavour of their honey is so distinctive compared to the regular pasteurized store bought honey. The winery itself was operated by mostly family members, with additional expert help for wine making. I really like small wineries like Rosewood, because they put their heart and should into the products that they are selling, it’s like going to a Mom & Pop diner in a small town, you know it’s going to be epic.

It was my first time trying mead, a fermented honey alcoholic beverage. It was interesting, but aI still prefer wine over mead, I fell wine is more balanced in flavour, acid and sweet, where mead was just sweet.
It was a fantastic trip down to the southern part of Niagara region, and I know our cooks learnt a lot from each stop we visited that day. Cant wait for the next one..”

Jacky Lo – Sous Chef @ Cluny Bistro

Click an image below to open the gallery

crack of dawn – food terminal musings

the boss from Riga Farms – we use their kale throughout the Distillery Restaurants

team DRC ! – at the warehouse

Matty explaining the shipping board and how our deliveries are scheduled

travis… being travis.

an inside joke.

the pristine warehouse floor of St. David’s Hydroponics

THE ROBOT ! !

the sorting and automation computer equipment. the food business has certainly gone hi-tech

a full cart of peppers. the robot follows a groove in the concrete with an optical ‘eye’ which directs it back to the sorting equipment in the warehouse

the robot bringing the peppers in for sorting

the pristine environment for the very lucky secluded Rosewood honey bees